Drafters unveil their visions for new charter
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PUBLIC CONSULTATION HIGH ON AGENDA FOR NEW ATTEMPT TO WRITE A CONSTITUTION
NEWLY appointed Constitution Drafting Committee members yesterday unveiled their thoughts on drafting the new charter, their priorities and the challenges they expect to face.
CDC member Juree Wijitwatakarn said she would use her knowledge and experience to establish a constitutional mechanism to improve civil and women’s rights and boost citizens’ “quality”.
“The most important task is to create sustainable measures. I must admit that establishing a mechanism to improve citizens’ quality in the charter is difficult but we must do our best,” she said.
She added that the just-rejected charter draft contained provisions for improving human quality but they needed to be shortened, with a mechanism added to improve the quality of citizens.
CDC member Prapan Naikovit said the March deadline for the new draft was a tight one, giving the committee just six months to complete the task.
“We have time constraints, because we want to heed opinions from various social sectors, including members of the public. Other issues over what to include in the charter draft are still to be decided upon,” he said.
Prapan said the CDC would meet to decide what to incorporate in the new draft from the 1997 and 2007 charters and the recently rejected charter draft.
“We have little time, so we can use previous charters and information from the previous CDC as a reference for the new draft. We need to discuss how we use them,” he said.
He added that aside from time constraints, another point of concern was the lack of an agency to review the completed draft now that the National Reform Council had been disbanded.
“Since the draft will go to a referendum, we have to be careful and heed opinions from the public in order to secure public acceptance of the document,” he said.
The CDC will meet to discuss how to gather opinions from the public, with public hearings in provinces and media outreach being mooted.
CDC member Chartchai na Chiangmai said he believed the 1997 and 2007 charters should be considered amid the current political context, which requires a recognition of diversity.
“The key is how to make the charter a ‘living’ law that won’t easily be scrapped. The charter must answer questions on both the short and the long term and must uphold democracy, liberty and equality. It must strike a balance among the public and the private and state sectors.
“The charter must provide for greater and more efficient checks by the public. It must equip the state sector with a self-checking mechanism and also allow checks from outside,” he said.
Chartchai gave the thumbs up to the recently rejected charter draft, saying it deserved a score of 80-90 per cent for its public-sector checks-and-balances mechanism.
He said what was required now were effective reforms of the judiciary and the police force.
He added that it was normal for the CDC to face political pressure. “We have to present facts and reasons for why we write the draft as we do. We cannot satisfy every sector but we have to convince them of our principles.”
